Nora shivered as the gaunt howled in the distance. Nights meant that the terrors of Twilight’s deep places stalked the surface, but she hated the gaunts. Stalkers would hunt you through the wastes, and behemoths would simply crush you, but gaunts preyed upon your psyche. They weren’t an enemy that you could defeat with steel or skills. Well, if one got close enough, you could probably stab them, but usually they wouldn’t even let you see them. Unlike more traditional enemies, they would stay just out of sight, letting their baleful aura sap away at their victims until little more than a shell was left. Only then would they show their skeletal, horse-like forms.
When her town’s sanctuary runes had failed, stalkers and behemoths accounted for the deaths of most of her friends and family, but the gaunts were what stuck with Nora. She had been trapped in a basement for hours, and the aura of a gaunt cared nothing for the walls and floor she was hiding behind. Each minute was an eternity as the gaunts’ magic bared her innermost self and found it wanting.
The aura had a way of making you think that you were nothing, that you had always been nothing, and that it would never change. It replayed all of your flaws on a loop while emphasizing humanity and your own cosmic insignificance. She shuddered. According to the other night survivors that she met later, she was lucky to have survived. Most who were exposed to the aura of a gaunt for more than an hour simply killed themselves, but even those who survived did so as shells.
Maybe it was because she was young and had a resilient mind when exposed, or maybe it was because she was stronger than other people, but from the minute Nora stepped out of the basement after night broke, she knew that she wasn’t going to be a statistic. Whatever it took, she was going to be strong enough to stop it from happening again. Whether that meant making sure that the rich and powerful didn’t cut corners at the cost of poor folks’ lives, or getting powerful enough to actually protect the less fortunate, she wasn’t entirely sure. What she did know was that protecting people would require ranks.
That was about fifteen years ago, and here she was. A recently-minted second rank. Finally, a veteran after her little sojourn into the mines. It might make her a big deal in a smaller town like Morganville, but in a real city, it wasn’t worth much more than a respectful nod.
Even the Mayor, Morgan, was rumored to only be a fourth rank.
Nora snorted. Morgan might call herself a mayor, but it’s not like anyone had voted for her. Instead, the woman showed up one day with enough muscle at her back to crush anyone opposing her. As if that wasn’t enough, people like Nora were drafted as scouts to help identify ‘potential allies’ as well as ‘subversive elements.’
As much as Nora wanted to escape the system, second rank was far from where she’d need to be to escape Morgan’s influence. No, for now, her dreams of being a masked avenger righting wrongs and protecting the weak would have to be put on hold until she gained a couple ranks.
At least with Daniel, that was a possibility. She still couldn’t put her finger on whether he was the real deal, dangerously naive, or some sort of spy, but she couldn’t deny that he knew how to accumulate mana. Whatever that frenzy he went into in the ant hive was, it certainly warranted watching, but it was effective. He had killed almost thirty of the ants on his own, and he probably would have gotten even more if Andrea hadn’t clubbed him over the back of the head so that they could drag him out of the hive along with the silver. Associating with him was both physically and politically risky, but in a couple days, she had gained more mana than she had in the previous five years of adventuring.
She sighed and paced the perimeter of the runes. Deep inside, something was trying to hold her back. To tell her that she was still that insignificant little girl hiding in the basement of a ruined town. That even if she fought and clawed her entire life, she would only be able to make a local difference. If she was lucky, she might be able to found a town like Morganville. Maybe keep a few thousand people safe for a few decades. It was certainly better than nothing, but in the grand scheme of things, it was a grain of sand on a beach. It wouldn’t stop hundreds of people from dying in poverty on Twilight and across the entire Tellask Empire every day.
One day, the plan was to actually go into the dungeons to seek out revenge. It was probably just the dream of an angry little girl, but the cracks in Twilight’s surface that housed the monsters before night fell were a lucrative prospect. Not many adventurers returned, which was unsurprising considering they were fighting stalkers, behemoths, and gaunts in their own homes without the protection of sanctuary runes, but the ones who did came back rich. The bones of the planet were riddled with enough mana, mythril, and gold to transform any survivor into a powerhouse. More than that, she would actually be able to strike back against the invisible demons that weighed her down. She would finally be something more than prey, a hunter in her own right, taking the fight to the implacable monsters that took her family from her.
A shape moved in the dark, barely visible through the purple light of the runic barrier. Nora stopped walking and stared into the night. Suddenly, a shadow passed between Ishlar’s campsite and her. She squinted her eyes and triggered a flow of mana towards the runic mark in the shape of a cat’s eye on her class tattoo. A second later, the skill kicked in, and her night vision improved greatly. The inky darkness transformed into an eerie black and white tableau. There, sitting fifteen feet from her, was a gaunt.
It sat back on its bony haunches and simply watched her with empty eye sockets. Nora sucked in a breath and stepped back from the barrier. Its gaze followed her. The ribs on its sides moved rhythmically, barely concealing the shining, rotten flesh beneath them.
The sages weren’t sure whether gaunts were truly alive or not. They resembled undead both in their appearance and ability, but they had at least some of the most basic vestiges of life. Their lungs inhaled, they ate, and their hearts pumped a thick dark ichor through their veins. Still, their heads had no flesh whatsoever, instead resembling a horse skull with horns and the fangs and sharp teeth of a carnivore. Their bodies were made of rotting flesh inside an exoskeleton of bone, and they seemed to feed off of the negative feelings they created almost as much as the flesh of their victims.
The sanctuary runes muted the impact of its aura, but having its attention focused on their campsite still wasn’t good. It wasn’t unknown for travelers to come upon bodies with self-inflicted wounds inside intact runes. Given enough time, it would wear all of them down to the point where they couldn’t go on. It was just a race between night ending and the party’s willpower cracking to the point where suicide seemed a better option. Even now, Nora’s mood lagged as self-doubt creeped in. Perversely, she couldn’t even tell if it was her own anxiety or something induced by the gaunt staring at her.
“I just realized something.” Behind her, Daniel was talking to the sisters. “For all the exploration and the growth we’ve gone through, I don’t even have the faintest idea how to get home. It was all well and good to hop over here with the help of a teleportation array, but I don’t even know the first thing about getting back, even if I had the power to do it.”
Shit. Already the aura was impacting the rest of the party. Internally, Nora warred over whether she should tell them. On one hand, they had a right to know that a denizen of the night had fixed its sightless gaze on them. On the other hand, there was nothing they could do about it until the runes went down, and letting them know would only give it another lever with which to pry into their minds. Indecision paralyzed her, but in the back of her mind, a voice whispered that even the indecision might be a product of the gaunt’s power.
“So Dan,” she butted in with forced cheer as she tried to distract herself and the party. “Since you’re our party leader, it might be for the best if you let us know what your affinities are. So far you’ve revealed fire, thunder, and space, but I just want to make sure there aren’t any more hiding out there. It’s all well and good for you to play up the ‘mysterious stranger’ angle in town when preying upon the local girls, but if we’re going to work together, I think it would be helpful for us to actually know what you can do.”
“Aren’t all of you local girls?” he responded quickly, eyeing Andrea and Emily meaningfully. “Why can’t I use my man of mystery bit to prey on all of you?”
Instantly, Andrea grabbed Emily by the shoulder, and both of them stumbled backward, eyes glued to Daniel. Distrust bloomed on the large woman’s face as her hand gripped the handle of her maul. A giggle bubbled up inside Nora as Daniel threw his hands into the air in frustration.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he asked, rhetorically. “It was a joke. I have enough problems without getting wrapped up with you guys.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Emily questioned defensively. “Is this just a matter of you not finding us attractive enough for your predations? Do you think pursuing us would just create problems? Is that the only reason why you haven’t come after us?”
Nora doubled over laughing, the gloom from the gaunt almost palpably ejected from their gathering. There was something about two six-foot-and-change women, covered in muscles, huddled together and staring fearfully at Daniel. He wasn’t unfit or unattractive, but it was simply hard to find him menacing. He might be able to defeat one of the sisters in a fight, but that would be a matter of agility and range. Either of them could snap him in half like a twig if they actually got their hands on him.
“Jesus tapdancing…” Daniel shook his head and forcibly stopped himself. “No,” he muttered, too quietly for the sisters to hear. “You lose if you engage; you know better than this.”
“Tell us, Dan,” Nora couldn’t help but prod at the uncomfortable man. “What about Emily and Andrea make them unfit for your interest? Perhaps you’re simply afraid that the weapon you wield will be insufficient to wound them?”
Daniel shot her a dirty look then kept muttering to himself. Outside the circle, the gaunt stood up and walked closer. The chill of its aura warred against their party’s fire and conversation. She avoided looking at it, but somehow she knew it was still staring at her, seeking to pull her back into the night with it.
Daniel turned to Nora, ignoring her mirth. “To answer your original question. I have affinities in fire, metal, gravity, force, lightning, and space. I’ve only really worked on lightning, fire, space, and gravity, but I do have the attunement stones on hand for the other two. It’s just always been a matter of time and resources. Until I rank up, it will be hard for me to devote enough mana to attuning myself to the remaining two, and I always thought it would be best to focus on the spells that would provide me with immediate benefit. I’m sure metal and force will be useful down the line, but I suspect that low-level applications of them would annoy foes more than anything.”
“Six affinities?” Nora quirked an eyebrow at Daniel. “Are you sure you aren’t a princeling of some sort who has escaped his minders? I don’t think I’ve heard of a human having more than three affinities, and even amongst elves, it’s supposed to be rare.”
She shrugged dismissively. “Or so they tell us. I honestly don’t know what to believe about the elves, other than that they’re powerful. I really don’t know if they’re over or understating their magic. I just know working with them is usually a losing prospect.”
“I don’t know anyone who has come out ahead after they’ve entered a contract with an elf.” Emily nodded in agreement as she extricated herself from Andrea. “Even when the agreement seems like a win-win on the surface, elves usually find a way to push for every last drop of advantage out of a bargain. With humans, most of us see the value in maintaining a friendly relationship with a business or trade partner, but the elves see us as disposable. As far as I can tell, they just think that we’re going to succumb to disease or old age in the blink of an eye, so they don’t even see the point of maintaining a friendly relationship with us.”
“I suppose a sixty-year lifespan is pretty much meaningless to someone who expects to live five to six millenia,” Emily continued. “We’re like dogs to elves, just less cute. By the time they form an emotional connection, we just up and die.”
“Just better to avoid them.” Andrea spat on the ground. “They can have their power and their schemes out in space. We won’t antagonize them; it’s not worth the trouble. They’re powerful enough to back up any slight, but you just don’t come out ahead if you try to work with them. It’s why no one but the desperate really worked with Ishlar.”
“Nora worked for him.” Daniel nodded in her direction. “Does that mean she was desperate?”
“I’m sure she had her reasons,” Andrea responded before Nora could defend herself. “But, after a fashion, yes. His patron is an elf. The patronage has made Ishlar a force in a town like Morganville, but ultimately it will come with a cost. None of us really know when he will have to pay the price, but no one wants to be caught in the collateral damage when it comes due.”
“He just seems like a bully to me,” Daniel shrugged, glancing out towards the purple beacon of Ishlar’s camp. “He’s strong, but he doesn’t really even know how to fight. I guess he would be useful fighting against unskilled, but physically-talented monsters, but anything with a hint of agility would rip him apart.”
“You’re forgetting how dumb he is,” Nora chimed in. “He’s all right as an adventurer, but his biggest asset is his patron’s political support. As much as the authorities in Morganville would like to shut him down, doing so would anger his patron. Despite that, he’s out here picking a fight with someone who already brought him down once. If he doesn’t make it back to town, oh well. It’s a dangerous world out here, and he did spend a night outside. Sometimes things just happen at night.”
A predatory grin slipped across her face. She might not know what she would be doing in two years or a decade, but in the short term, her course was clear. Ishlar was an annoying asshole who made life more difficult for everyone in Morganville. Cosmically, it might not matter, but a Twilight without him was a better world, and in a couple of hours he would be nothing but mana in their systems and carrion. In the darkness, the gaunt stood and ambled away. She didn’t know whether her emotional strength had driven it off, or if it had grown bored, but either way, it was a small victory against the night she could cling to.
